Gaza ceasefire hangs in the balance

AS MIDDLE East leaders work with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to broker a ceasefire agreement acceptable to both Israel and Hamas, United Nations ambassadors in New York said the Security Council would hold an open debate on the crisis on Wednesday afternoon if a ceasefire was not called before then.

The open debate would break a week of silence in the council. After hours of closed-door meetings in the council on Tuesday, the ambassadors of India, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority all emerged to announce the council had agreed to the debate.

The move comes after the US blocked adoption of a unanimous press statement from the council because it did not explicitly criticise Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel.

A Russian draft resolution calling for a ceasefire, expressing support for international mediation efforts and urging the Palestinians and Israelis to resume broader Middle East peace talks, remains stalled.

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In Jerusalem, at a brief appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the two entered closed-door talks, Mrs Clinton said: ''The American commitment to Israel's security is rock solid and unwavering. That is why we believe it is essential to de-escalate the situation.''

Mrs Clinton was speaking at the start of a regional tour that will also take her to the West Bank city of Ramallah and on to Cairo for talks with Egypt's President Mohamed Mursi.

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Her arrival in Jerusalem coincided with furious speculation that a Gaza truce announcement by the two sides was in the works and could come within hours.

With the death toll on Tuesday standing at 139 Gazans and five Israelis dead, a senior official said Israel had delayed its decision on whether to launch a ground invasion by 24 hours to allow Egypt more time to broker the ceasefire.

At one point, Hamas officials late on Tuesday indicated a ceasefire would start at midnight, but Egypt and Israel then played down reports that an agreement had been reached.

The Israeli Defence Forces said more than 140 rockets had been fired by militants into the country's south, hitting the cities of Be'er Sheeva and Ashdod.

Before Mrs Clinton's visit, Mr Netanyahu said: ''I prefer a diplomatic solution. I hope that we can get one, but if not we have every right to defend ourselves with other means and we shall use them.''

In Gaza, Israel had continued its air strikes overnight Tuesday targeting multiple sites in Gaza City and dropping leaflets urging residents in key areas to evacuate for their own safety.

There were chaotic scenes at the city's major hospital, a stream of ambulances, minibuses and private cars arrived carrying multiple dead and wounded.

Gaza's medical officials said at least 19 people were killed during attacks on Tuesday, including several children, while in Israel a soldier was killed in a rocket strike in the Eshkol region, the IDF said.

As Gazans and media gathered at Shifa Hospital for the arrival of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, and the Arab League delegation, a long-range missile was fired from nearby, streaking through the sky towards Jerusalem. It was the second time a rocket had been launched towards Jerusalem since Israel's Gaza offensive began last Wednesday.

Palestinians in the West Bank village of Surif, south of Jerusalem, said a rocket had fallen nearby, Maan news agency reported, while witnesses said a rocket landed near the Bat Ayin settlement.No sooner had the rocket been fired fired than the Israeli air strikes began.

''Over the past hour, we targeted 20 terror sites in the Gaza Strip,'' an IDF spokesperson tweeted on Tuesday night local time, while the strikes continued well into the night.